Darnell Mooney Brings Speed to Route Running
Darnell Mooney brings the type of speed to the Bears not seen at wide receiver since they drafted Kevin White in 2015.
They can only hope his career doesn't take the turn White's did almost from Day 1.
"I feel like I’m a fast guy," Mooney said
Exactly how fast is Mooney?
In terms of Chicago Bears speed, there have been very few faster by official NFL Scouting Combine 40 times.
Mooney ran 4.38 at the combine. The only time faster by a Bears draft pick since wide receiver Johnny Knox ran 4.34 in 2009 was White's 4.35.
Tarik Cohen (4.42) didn't run faster at the combine. Even Devin Hester (4.41) didn't run as fast as the fifth-round draft pick from Tulane.
Coach Matt Nagy will have plenty of opportunities to figure out how to use the 5-foot-10, 176-pound speedster who the Bears hope could be their version of the Chiefs' Tyreek Hill, another fifth-round draft pick.
Yet Mooney caught the eye of scouts and coaches for reasons other than his speed.
"What you see is his releases are really good off the line of scrimmage," Nagy said. "He understands leverage and when I say that, there might be a defensive back that's trailing him on his inside hip and he makes a move to the inside to get the snap and then he turns the outside and create separation making it a friendly throw for the quarterback.
"You just feel every route he runs he's real smooth. He has big strides. For being somebody of his (smaller) stature, he chews up a lot of ground early and then he has that top-end speed. He's been inside. He's outside. The other thing that jumped out to all of us as we were watching tape, he's one of those guys, where there's a lot of stuff on tape and he shows where he makes the first guy miss. And when you're able to do that with the acceleration that he has it can turn a 12-yard gain into a home run and a touchdown and we like that. It was really intriguing to us and we’re ready to see a lot of it."
Mooney simply says to get him the ball, any way possible.
"I mean we can do one-on-ones, I can sit in a zone, give me the ball anywhere that will allow me to just make a play," Mooney said. "Be dangerous when I touch the ball—just give me the opportunity to just be me."
GM Ryan Pace liked the reaction scouts and assistant coaches had to Mooney, especially wide receivers coach Mike Furrey.
"You hear the scouts talking about him through the season and then we go through the meetings in December, and I think this was a guy, too, to be honest that our coaches were really fired up about as well," Pace said. "It was neat to hear Mike Furrey kind of pounding the table from his office, then you get (offensive coordinator Bill) Lazor and (passing game coordinator Dave) Ragone and Matt (Nagy) and all of us get involved, and you can just feel the momentum.
"That was one where you could really feel the momentum building on that evaluation. Then we did the interviews and it just kind of cemented the whole process."
Mooney brings more than speed and running ability to the Bears. He's also got a bit of a chip on his shoulder because he was drafted in the fifth round.
"Same thing over and over," Mooney said. "I've just got to prove myself. I've been living through heart all my life, so I don't expect it to change.
"Just know as soon as I get in I'm going to make a lot of noise and there are going to be some things to talk about in the future."
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
